What would happen if you took the opportunity of this slower pace of life to honour your actions, however small they are? This is yajña. How do you think it would make you feel? Yajña is usually translated as sacrifice and although this is correct, it refers more to the sacredness found in sacrifice. It means consecrating your actions, with devotion, as an offering to whatever or whomever you want to offer them to.
Yajña is explained by Krishna to Arjuna in chapter 3 of the Bhagavad Gita, the chapter focusing on how to act. In verse 3.9 Krishna says: ‘People are bound by their actions except when they are performed for the sake of yajña. Thus, Arjuna, do your work, free from attachments, in the spirit of yajña.’ An action performed in yajña is its own reward, irrespective of the outcome. It is a win-win situation.
I found in yajña a life leson. My teacher Kia once shared with me that the single thing that changed her practice the most was gratitude. Gratitude and the offering in yajña are related; they have that magical transformative power.
Start small (with a meal, a cup of tea, sunshine), and, before long, you will find yourself smiling and yajña permeating many aspects of your life, making it one of honouring. Yes, things could be better right now, they always can, but this does not negate that we are here, and for that, we are fortunate. This is truly a gift and a blessing, worth celebrating.
Laura x
https://www.lauragonzalez.co.uk/yoga |